The Fujifilm GFX 50S mirrorless medium format camera has an official release date: 23 February 2017. And with a body-only price of £6,199 it's highly affordable for a medium format camera.
The GFX 50S features a huge 43.8 x 32.9mm medium format sensor - which is around 1.7x larger than a full-frame DSLR camera sensor - complete with a whopping 51.4-megapixel resolution.
Unlike many existing medium format cameras, this will offer extensive sensitivity from ISO 100 - 12,800. It doesn't follow suit with Fujifilm's X-Trans CMOS range of system cameras, however.
To cater for a sensor of this size, Fuji has also introduced a new range of lenses: GF optics, connected via the all-new G-mount. At launch there will be the GF 63mm f/2.8 (price: £1,399), GF 32-64mm f/4.0 (price: £2,199), and GF 120mm f/4.0 optically-stabilised Macro (price: £2,599). Just like the camera body each of these lenses is weather-resistant.
Other specification details reveal a 3.2-inch 2.69m-dot LCD touchscreen that's built onto a variable bracket for positioning at various angles. There's a 3.69m-dot electronic viewfinder included in the box too - although you'll need to pay £579 extra to get the vari-angle adaptor to manipulate its position.
As there's a 1.28-inch top display screen not all the settings need to display on the rear, which is great to get a good eye on what's going on in your composition.
Another revelation is just how small and lightweight the 50S is: a mere 825g with the battery included. Add the viewfinder and it's 920g - which, at sub-1kg, is lighter than many pro-spec DSLR cameras. Its small size is mirrored by its media of choice too: there are dual SD card slots (speeds up to UHS-II are supported).
The GFX 50S uses a focal plane shutter, so there's none of the fancy high-speed flash sync work that you can achieve with leaf shutter lenses. Its maximum 1/4000th sec (or 1/16,000th sec via electronic shutter) does ensure the 50S can be used for higher-speed shooting situations, however.
In terms of autofocus the 50S uses a 117-point contrast-detection AF system. We're surprised there's no phase-detection system at play here (at a sensor level), but as this is a mirrorless camera we can understand why thats the case. Adjusting the focus point can be actioned using the focus lever on the back of the camera - which is styled as you'll find in the X-Pro2 and also-announced X100F cameras - or via the touchscreen.
All sounds very pro to us. We look forward to using this mirrorless medium format. That it costs significantly less than Fuji's confident Photokina 2016 claim of "sub-$10,000" is a great thing indeed.